Ashley O'Gorman loves skateboarding enough to want to do it all year, even when it's bitter cold outside. "I really like the adrenaline rush," Ashley, 15, says.

So her mother, Debbie, drives from Pawling, N.Y., to Bristol as frequently as she can, so her daughter can enjoy the indoor skate park CT Bike and Skate.

"It takes an hour and 15 minutes. But there is no place as good as this one," Debbie says as she watches her daughter go back and forth on a mini-ramp, swooping, spinning, landing, over and over and over again. "There are lots of nice people here."

The facility at 80 South St. has been in business for 25 years. Hours are longer during cold-weather months than warm-weather months, when local skateboarders can hang out at Rockwell Park, which has a nice skateboarding area. CT Bike and Skate welcomes skateboards, rollerblades, inline skates, scooters and BMX bikes.

"The kids who participate are learning about life here," said Jim Parrott, who founded CT Bike and Skate in 1987. "Learning how to get along, take turns, improve their skills."

Years ago, Parrott raced BMX bikes himself, getting to No. 1 in state, and No. 8 in the nation, in the senior class for ages 35 and older.

The 5,000-square-foot park is on the second floor of the South Street building, which Parrott owns. On the first floor, Parrott runs a skate and bike shop. Upstairs, the skate park is appropriately grungy; it's impossible to keep floors neat if teenagers are riding over them all day. Kids wear jeans and hoodies in the unheated building, which has a small room with a heater and some old sofas for those who need it.

"It may seem cold, but kids take off their jackets. They really work up a sweat," Debbie O'Gorman says.

The park charges $10 per person for a session, which is four hours on weekdays and five on weekends. It also can be rented out privately for two-, three- and four-hour sessions. Participants can use the spine, half-pipe, quarter-pipes and mini ramps. Parrott is particularly proud of the half-pipe, "The Monster," which is 45 feet long, 24 feet wide and 11 1/2 feet tall.

There isn't a lot of structure to sessions but there is supervision. Volunteer "Tiny Tim" Dent keeps an eye out to make sure everybody's playing nice and nobody's doing anything illegal or dangerous or hogging the floor. The crowd, which is predominantly teens and young men, know the rules and work well together. "They have respect for one another," Dent says. "They learn from each other."

The skaters are easygoing about the potential dangers of skating in such proximity to each other. "Your board was right here, man," one young man tells another after a skateboard came close to his face. Both laugh it off. Dent says that in the five years he's been volunteering, he remembers only 3 or 4 broken bones.

Helmets are not required — the most common head gear are backwards baseball caps and watch caps — but many of the skaters wear knee and elbow pads.

Dent's son is one of the regulars. So is James Guilmette, 26, of Bristol. "I grew up here. I've been coming 13 years," Guilmette said. "It's the only indoor spot close to home. I come twice a week."

Parrott said the park has been around so long it's becoming a family tradition. "Kids who were coming when they were 10 or 15 are now in their late 30s and early 40s," he said. "Now I see their kids come in."

CT BIKE AND SKATE is at 80 South St. in Bristol. Normal winter hours are Thursday and Friday 4 to 8 p.m. and weekends noon to 5 p.m. Hours may expand during February school vacation week; call 860-582-3334 for details.